chapter 2 - the selection

Their journey in the back of the lorry went on all night, through the next day, and into the following night. It was lasting so long that many of the women now feared they were being taken to the dreaded Lubyanka in Moscow to be interrogated. At one point that afternoon they had stopped and they all thought they would be let out, craving just to get out of the cramped lorry and stand in the sun if only for a few minutes. It wasn't to be though, they evidently only stopped to refuel and as soon as the tanks had been filled again, they heard the engine come back to life and they were soon rolling down the rutted roads again.

By midday they were all hungry and by evening they were starving. Like everyone they knew in Russia, they were all willowy thin. They received enough food at the university, but no more. Their daily rations seldom consisting of more than soup, dry bread, and part of a sausage or dried fish. None of them had anything to eat since the evening before they were all arrested.

Sometime after dark the lorry stopped. The junior NKVD officer opened the back of the truck and sat a pail in the back with loaves of dark dry bread in it. The truck then started off again, and the women divided the bread in equal portions for all of them. They sat huddled together in the back of the lorry eating their meager portions of bread, trying to make them last as long as they could. After they all finished their bread, they drifted off into fitful sleep, staying as close to each other as possible for warmth. All of them were still in their wool pajamas and slippers. No gloves, no coats. It was Spring, but Spring in Russia can still be quite cold, particularly in the North where they were.

They all awoke the next morning when the truck suddenly slowed and then turned up what seemed like a narrow path as they could hear the sounds of tree branches scraping the sides of the truck. After a few minutes the truck stopped, the engine cut off, and they heard the two NKVD officers jump out and walk to the back of the truck.

The officers opened the back of the truck and ordered them all out. It was early as the sun was still fairly low in the sky. They were in a clearing surrounded by deep forest. At the back of the clearing there was a huge old home that had obviously belonged to a wealthy aristocrat before the revolution. To the side of the house stood a barn and stables. The Northern Urals were visible rising in the distance.

The senior officer ordered all the women to line up side by side in front of the lorry. The junior officer pointed a rifle at them as they did so. Once they had lined up, the senior officer said, "Take off your clothes and set them at your feet." Out of modesty, the women at first did not comply, so he pulled his pistol and said, "Do it now!". Knowing he would think nothing of shooting them, the women all took their wool pajamas off and sat them along with their undergarments in front of them. They all stood naked, shivering in the cold morning air, and attempting to cover themselves with their arms and hands.

A rider emerged from the stables on a tall jet black Budyonny horse. It was a woman in a long sable coat, and high stiletto boots. She was very beautiful, with long wavy black hair and blue eyes. She wasn't thin like they were. Instead, she looked to be voluptuous. Not fat, they had never even seen anyone that was fat in Russia, but she was curvy and voluptuous.

As she galloped up to them, the senior officer ordered them all, "Put your arms to your sides and stand up straight. Do not look up at her." They all did as they were told, standing as straight as they could in the snow, their arms at their sides, their thin willowy bodies shivering in the cold.

The women approached them on her tall black horse. The horse was obviously high strung but seemed to fear its rider. The women stopped her horse and looked down at them. She rode up and down the line, looking the girls over. With her long riding crop, she pointed at Yana and then two other girls. The senior NKVD officer pulled Yana and the two other girls to the side. He then looked at the other girls, and ordered, "Get dressed and get back into the truck." The remaining girls all quickly pulled their undergarments and pajamas back on, then climbed into the back of the truck as the other officer held his rifle on them.

Yana looked at the other two girls with her and noticed that they were the prettiest of the girls that had been arrested. Yana asked the officer "Can we get dressed?" The senior officer replied, "No you cannot. You are to follow your governess to the house."

The senior officer got into the truck and started it. The woman on the horse ordered them, "Come". The horse turned, and they followed the woman to the big house.